


Five Times Wally And Dick Relied On Each Other (and the one time they couldn’t)

by Wally_Birb



Category: Batman - All Media Types, The Flash - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, I’m so sorry, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 08:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20112373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wally_Birb/pseuds/Wally_Birb
Summary: “I’ll make you a deal,” Dick’s voice cracked slightly with the tension of repressed emotions. “You don’t let me become Batman, I won’t let you die in a mask.”(AU but it’s mean and sad and I’m sorry that I ever wrote it)





	Five Times Wally And Dick Relied On Each Other (and the one time they couldn’t)

**Author's Note:**

> So I found this in my google drive from like a year ago back when I knew how to write and it made me cry reading it back, so I decided to play a Share The Wealth card and make any sorry bastard reading this cry too.
> 
> This AU is basically that the speed force is slowly killing Wally. Do I have any sorta comic book science to back it up? Not at all! It just is!

1.

The first time it happened was the night after the simulation.

No one expected anyone to be okay after watching each other die, but the team was nowhere near okay enough to talk about it. Artemis had zeta’d to Star City with Green Arrow the moment Black Canary let her out of her sight. (It was still unclear as to whether or not BC had cleared it, but whatever Artemis had experienced in her coma was enough to shake her to the point of willing to cross her. That alone was telling enough.) 

Kaldur left for the ocean after speaking with Aquaman in hushed tones. (Aquaman promised BC that Kaldur just needed some space.) 

Conner disappeared to do...whatever Superboys do whenever they’re desperately trying to ignore something that happened. (when he came back, he was calmer. That’s all that really mattered to the rest of the team.)

M’gann...she stayed mostly silent by the side of her mentor, who offered to let her stay with him for the night. She had refused quietly before retreating to her room in the cave. (The sounds of muffled crying might’ve been loud enough for them to hear if they went close enough, but no one was okay enough to even try.)

Flash tried to take Wally home, but one look from Dick was all he needed to refuse his mentor. He knew that Dick wouldn’t be leaving the cave anytime soon, and was determined to stay with his best friend. It was just an added bonus that he wouldn’t have to face his father any time soon by staying. (Flash had probably already figured the beginning out, but Iris would’ve actually maimed him if he didn’t at least try. He had no idea that Wally was also avoiding home.)

So when Dick shrugged off his own mentor--much to Batman’s concern--Wally was right there. The pair traded a look that was weighted with the experience of _dying together_ before coming to an unspoken agreement. They abandoned the Meeting of Mentors™ to set up a pillow fort in Robin’s room. Wally finished making the snacks just as Dick finished the structure.

They were halfway through the mountain of sweets when Dick’s voice broke the silence.

“How are you so calm?” He asked, voice small. Sometimes Wally forgot just how young Dick was. He certainly outlived most of them when it came to life experience, but he was still just a kid--barely a teenager. Sometimes Wally just...forgot. He would let himself get distracted by the cocky attitude and intelligence and then Dick would say something in _that_ tone of voice and suddenly, Wally would remember.

“BC says I’m in denial. It’s fun here. Everything’s okay again,” Wally joked half-heartedly before shrugging helplessly and looking over at his best friend. Dick had abandoned his mask mere minutes into the process of building the blanket fort, leaving Wally an uninterrupted view of his distraught expression. “What’s eating you the most, Rob?”

There was a heavy pause as Dick tilted his head to the side, considering the question.

“I don’t want to be Batman.”

Wally nodded to himself, remembering the hard decisions they had forced Rob to make. He flickered his gaze down to his lap as he realized what had been bothering him the most. “I don’t want to die doing this.”

The two friends spent a few moments which felt as heavy as hours on a battlefield in silence, soaking in what the other had confessed.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Dick’s voice cracked slightly with the tension of repressed emotions. “You don’t let me become Batman, I won’t let you die in a mask.”

Wally nodded and pulled Dick into his side.

They both knew that both of those futures were the likeliest and, honestly, they probably wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. This didn’t stop Wally from agreeing.

“Deal.”

2.

“I cannot believe you were kidnapped, man.” Wally laughed as he fought off a multitude of rent-a-thugs that were surrounding Dick, who was stuck in his civvies and tied to a chair. “Imagine my surprise when I hear that Dick Grayson has been kidnapped over the CCPD police scanner. I have a feeling that this is karma for you not telling me that you were in town. You’re basically bait for kidnappers and while I enjoy the laugh, it’s probably not good for Wayne Enterprise’s stocks.”

“Shut up and untie me, Kid Mouth,” Dick grimaced. “Either that of finish off these thugs, they’re getting irritating.”

“So bossy!” Wally gasped in mock surprise. “And this is only our first date!”

“Well, I’m already tied up, so I’m sure we got to where your first dates usually go,” Dick drawled as Wally finished off the last of the baddies.

“Kinky,” Kid Flash laughed and watched as Dick stood from the chair, shrugging off the rope as he looked around to make sure that the bad guys were all unconscious. “I’m touched that you waited for me to escape.”

“Hey, when I’m not dressed up, you’re the only hero I rely on,” Dick gave Wally a wide smile before looking around the warehouse. “Where am I, anyway?”

“Industrial district,” Wally answered. “Wanna hop on and get back to Gotham?”

“God yes. Your city’s too bright. It’s creepy.”

“Dude, you’re just saying that because you’re used to your city, where death and destruction is the norm. Central City is cheerier because our rogues aren’t actively running wild!”

“You do not wanna start this argument again, KF.”

3.

Quitting the team was the hardest decision that Wally had ever made in his life, but the speed force inside of him was killing him and using it actively? It only made it worse. He was dying, but he could control the terms of it and it would be behind a mask, dammit.

He told Dick before he told the others.

“Dick? Can I...talk to you?” He wrung his hands nervously, watching as Rob- no, Nightwing’s body language shifted from focused on the monitor in front of him to concerned in a moment. That was Dick for you. He could always tell when something was wrong with Wally. Wally hadn’t realized how much he’d grown to rely on that until he had decided not to tell Dick about the death sentence.

“KF? What is it?” Dick asked nervously. In the six years that he’d known Wally, nothing good ever came from him wringing his hands. Except for the time he’d kissed Dick before nervously explaining his crush a week ago. That was good. But it was also an anomaly and not the point. “You seem distraught.”

“I- uh…” Wally breathed out a sigh and looked at Dick--and wow, when did Dick get the same height as him? “Do you remember three years ago? The simulation?”

“How could I forget?” Dick grimaced in remembrance of a day that still haunted his dreams.

“You promised me...that you’d help me not to die in a mask and…dude,” Wally swallowed heavily and mentally reinforced his resolve not to tell Dick about the illness. “It’s time. It...it’s time for me to leave this behind.”

“Oh.” Dick blinked away the shock and focused on his best friend/maybe-boyfriend? “Why- why now? Is it...the kiss? I--”

“No, Dick. It’s not anywhere near your fault,” Wally reddened slightly at the mention of the kiss. He stepped forward and grabbed Dick’s hand. “It’s just something that I need to do. And I need your support.”

“I--” Dick clicked his mouth shut and looked down at their joined hands. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t, not anymore. Not by letting me put away the mask. You can’t get rid of me that easy.”

“As long as you’re in my life, Wally, I’ll support whatever you do.” Dick promised as he leaned up to press a kiss to Wally’s lips.

Wally tried to push away the guilt of the secret that cheapened the kiss.

4.

Wally was at Dick’s apartment the minute M’gann told him the news about Jason. Fuck the speed force getting worse with every acceleration, fuck the fact that they had broken up two months before this, Dick needed him.

There was a fist sized hole in the dry wall and the coffee table was broken. Surveying the room further revealed that whatever was on the coffee table prior to its destruction was shoved off onto the floor--including the two glasses and a plate that were now in pieces. Wally cleaned up what he could in the room at superspeed before approaching the dark figure on the couch.

Dick was leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, hands steepled, forehead leaning against his fingers. There were tears running down his cheeks, his entire body shaking with restrained anger, sadness, and guilt.

Wally knelt on the floor in front of Dick’s knees and gently laid his hand on the still costumed teenager’s arm. The touch seemed to break whatever trance Dick was in. He looked at Wally, startled, before his face crumpled and he started to sob.

Wordlessly, Wally pulled himself up and gathered his best friend into his arms.

5.

“You were _sick_!? And you didn’t fucking _tell me_!?” Wally winced at Dick’s voice, loud enough to echo through the halls of STAR labs and angry enough to scare even Batman. Wally opened his mouth to defend himself--to insist that it wasn’t as bad as Dick feared--but then remembered that he was currently in a hospital bed because he’d passed out in the middle of the day and Dick had been called as his emergency contact.

“Yeah,” Wally breathed out and raked a hand through his hair. Fucking. Past. Wally. He always seemed to fuck over future Wally. What the fuck was he thinking? That Dick fucking Grayson--son of the greatest detective in history--wouldn’t fucking find out? Especially not when Dick is his ICE contact. No, that totally does not seem like a recipe for him finding out.

Thank you, Past Wally. Go fuck yourself.

“‘Yeah’!? _’Yeah’_!? That’s all you have to say for yourself, Wally!? We’ve been relying on each other for five goddamn years and you’re telling me that you’ve been _dying_ for two of them but didn’t tell me!?” Dick was clenching and unclenching his fists at his side, seemingly unable to make up his mind between wanting to straddle and wanting to strangle his boyfriend. “_Why_!?”

“I didn’t want you to worry about little old me,” Wally chuckled humorlessly. “Also, I think we’re forgetting that I’ve kept a secret from you for two years which is really bad, but also a record.”

“Shut up, Wally.” Dick collapsed into a chair next to Wally’s bed and assumed his ‘Everyone I Love Is Dead Or Dying And It’s All My Fault’ pose. “So the entire time we’ve been dating--”

“Yeah.”

“Is that why you kissed me in the first place?”

“...Yes and no. No, I’d been wanting to do it for a while,” Wally admitted. “But yeah, it um...it gave me the courage I needed when I realized that I might die without you ever knowing that I love you.”

Dick sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “And it gets worse when you use your speed, I’m guessing. Which is why you quit the team?”

“Ding, ding, ding.”

“I knew there was something fishy about ‘it’s time’.” Dick sighed again--Wally was really starting to hate that sound--before he looked up at the redhead. “So the time that I have left with you is numbered but you still- you let me waste it with petty fights? And breakups?”

“Dick...I wouldn’t give up those petty fights for the world,” Wally clenched his jaw and looked away as his voice broke. “I love you, so much. The time we had was so real and genuine. I- I loved every minute we spent together. Even the fights. Well, most of the fights. There was that one when you threw a cheese grater at my head and I had to get stitches that I’d give up for maybe something really nice, but other than that--”

“Shut up, I apologized,” Dick whispered, but a hint of laughter haunted his voice. He grabbed Wally’s hand and intertwined their fingers together. “I love you, too, you big idiot. And we’re gonna get through this. I promise.”

“I won’t hold you to that,” Wally promised in return.

+1.

Wally was gone. He died in the mask.

Bruce was gone. Dick became Batman.

It was a fluke that Dick even found Wally’s old laptop--much less that he went through it. When he found the file addressed to him, however, he waited two years before he decided that he was well enough to open it.

_The video opened to Wally sitting on Dick’s couch, fiddling with the laptop to get the webcam at a better angle. He leaned back and grinned as he saw himself on the screen._

_“Alright, so--and I’ve always wanted to say this, so stay with me--if you’re watching this, it means I’m dead.” Wally snickered before sighing and sobering. The sound of Wally’s voice--almost forgotten but held onto with an iron tight grip--immediately made Dick tear up. He looked straight into the webcam--indirectly making eye contact with Dick as the hero watched him. “We had a good _run_. Ha, get it? Run? Well, Dick--and I’m assuming that it’s you because...I mean...who else?”_

_Wally leaned back and ran a hand through his already messy hair, his freckles standing out more in the more direct light from the fixture above. Dick had almost forgotten about the constellations that adorned Wally’s entire body. He had spent entire nights mapping out those spots and merely three years later, he had almost forgotten._

_“And because it’s you...I’m guessing that you’re beating yourself up over something. I don’t know. If I died from the speed force it’d be not knowing or if I’d told you by then it’d be not majoring in biochemistry and being a genius and finding a cure. If I die as Kid Flash maybe it’s over calling me in or not being there or, fuck, I don’t know, not keeping our deal? Maybe you just blame yourself for all of it, and if that’s how you’re coping...that’s okay. Well, not okay, but I get it. I’m recording this to let you know that...I don’t. I don’t blame you at all,” Wally gave the camera a lopsided smile and looked behind him towards Dick’s room._

_“I just found you completely out of it over Jason. I’m recording this so that- I mean, in a hypothetical world where you don’t hate me for keeping secrets and trying to stay out of the superhero world, don’t let my death destroy you the way I could see Jason’s doing. I mean, right now, you have a pretty great support system, but I can see that your relationships with the Bats are straining. I- I don’t want to sound too self absorbed here, but I’m your best friend. I’ve relied on you for years and you’ve relied on me for just as long. I’m afraid that without me there to hold you, you’ll fall apart._

_“So disregard this if you’re just fine, but if you’re not...let someone in. Get a new best friend. Fall in love again. Don’t...don’t become Batman. I love you. I do not blame you. I love you,” Wally sighed and let his head fall into his hand. “Leave it to me to tell you over a recording before I tell you to your face.”_

_Wally rubbed his hand over his face and looked straight through the camera and into Dick’s heart. “I love you, Richard Grayson. I wish that we could’ve had a life together, but...since we can’t, please let yourself live. I want you to be happy, Dick. Even if I’m not there to help it along.”_

_There was a muffled sound from the background of the video that made Wally look behind him. A door opened and Dick heard his own voice, muffled by the recording._

_“Wally? I- I thought you left.”_

_“You can’t get rid of me that easily, Dick. Just saving some things on my laptop.”_

_“...Can it wait?_

_“For you? Always.”_

Dick pushed away from the computer and sniffed harshly. He wiped away the streams of tears running down his face with his sleeve and shook his head.

This didn’t change anything.

Wally was gone. He died in the mask.

Bruce was gone. Dick became Batman.

**Author's Note:**

> I am so sorry.


End file.
